Blasphemous II's deliberately cryptic narrative, "a space to wonder"

It was interesting to meet and talk with Enrique Cabeza and David Erosa both when Blasphemous 2 was first shown and then when it had just been released, to see both the evolution of the project until its final shape... and how the director and producer at The Game Kitchen looked exhausted but relieved at last.

"Yeah, everything is about atmosphere so I particularly like video games that give me a space to wonder, to think and to activate my imagination", Cabeza says about the sometimes difficult-to-follow narrative of the sequel. "So nowadays there are a lot of games that explain a lot to the player, and that's ok, but it's not my personal style. I like games that activate my imagination and allow me to think and to feel the world in a special way, so the narrative we did was very poetic maybe also cryptic as well but we think it fits with this weird world, that everything is religious, everything is poetic in a special way".

"Sometimes for me as an art director and the writer", he continues on the matter, "I rather have a character that shocks the player. You have a bunch of those instead of explaining too much, so I think it's a mix of visual that helps players to activate their imagination as maximum as possible and let the guidance to a side. We wanted to create the main plot very, I think, comprehensible so the main plot is understandable, but the game is full of little stories. I like to say that Blasphemous is not one story but a story made of small stories, like small legends that live together in a world so you can read the item descriptions and you will find a short tale about them".

Is Blasphemous III a given?

"Let's say that the first game was made with limited budget and time restrictions", Erosa later recalls. "So it was done straight this way, but this time we had more time, the budget and the knowledge to do these things so there were so many new things to explore and there are many, many things that were left behind..."

For a threequel? We interrupt to ask if the studio is actually thinking about coming back to this universe for a third time or perhaps something else.

"What we expect for sure are long holidays", the producer laughs. "We are waiting for more player reactions and reviews; we'll think about all of those to see what we can do", the director concludes.

If you have played Blasphemous II, don't miss how at the end of the video both enthusiastically answer "Orospina [Bordadora Mayor]!" and her swordfight when asked about their favourite boss from the varied selection of greater enemies the game offers.

Watch the full 17-minute post-mortem interview to learn more about how players were sharing knowledge and discovering secrets from day one, on gameplay balance given how there are three weapons/paths to start from, or on innovating within the wider metroidvania genre.

How did you like or are you liking Blasphemous 2? Do you expect or want a threequel?